Reviews

Jaan Valsiner, Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union. Brighton, UK: The Harvester Press, 1988, x + 398 pp., £35.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Archie Brown, ed., Political Leadership in the Soviet Union, London: Macmillan, 1989, xi + 245 pp., £35.00 h/b, £14.99 p/b.

Susan L. Clark, ed., Gorbachev's Agenda: Changes in Soviet Domestic and Foreign Policy. Boulder: Westview Press, 1989, xviii + 422 pp., $35.95 p/b.

David Wedgwood Benn, Persuasion and Soviet Politics. London: Basil Blackwell, 1989, x + 243 pp., £25.00 h/b.

Karl‐Eugen Wädekin, ed., Communist Agriculture: Farming in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, xviii + 331 pp., £50.00

Gary Bertsch and Christopher T. Saunders, eds., East‐West Economic Relations in the 1990s. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, and Vienna: The Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, 1989, ix + 305 pp., £45.00.

Carl G. Jacobsen ed., Soviet Foreign Policy: New Dynamics, New Themes. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1989, xv + 214 pp.

Sylvia Woodby, Gorbachev and the Decline of Ideology in Soviet Foreign Policy. Boulder: Westview Press, 1989, vii + 127 pp., $25.00 p/b.

Stephen J. Cimbala, Uncertainty and Control: Future Soviet and American Strategy. London: Pinter Publishers, 1990, viii + 183 pp., £28.00.

Alex Pravda and Peter J. S. Duncan eds., Soviet‐British Relations Since the 1970s. Cambridge, London: RIIA/Cambridge University Press, 1990, xii + 260 pp., £30.00.

Kirsten Amundsen, Soviet Strategic Interests in the North. London: Frances Pinter in association with John Spiers, 1990, x + 153 pp., £30.00.

Nicola Miller, Soviet Relations with Latin America, 1959–1987. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, ix + 252 pp., £25.00 or $39.50 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Ilya Prizel, Latin America Through Soviet Eyes: the Evolution of Soviet Perceptions During the Brezhnev Era 1964–1982. Soviet and East European Studies, 72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, xiii+249 pp., £32.50, $44.50.

Milan Hauner, What is Asia to Us? Russia's Asian Heartland Yesterday and Today. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990, xvi + 264 pp., £30.00.

Michael Kirkwood, ed., Language Planning in the Soviet Union. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, in association with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, 1989, x + 230 pp., £35.00.

Andrei Gromyko, Memoirs. New York: Doubleday, 1990, pp. 414, $24.95.

Ihor Kamenetsky, ed., The Tragedy of Vinnytsia: Materials on Stalin's Policy of Extermination in Ukraine (1936–1938). Toronto, New York: The Ukrainian Historical Association, 1989, 286 pp., notes, bibliography, index, illustrations, $25.00 h/b.

Dov. B. Lungu, Romania and the Great Powers 1933–1940. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1989, xv + 293 pp., £44.55.

Paul LeBlanc, Lenin and the Revolutionary Party. London: Humanities Press International, 1990, xxxiv + 399 pp., £45.00.

Daniel Rancour‐Lafferiere, The Mind of Stalin: a Psychoanalytic Study. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1988, 161 pp., $17.95.     

Phenomenological aspects of psychosocial maturity in adolescence. Part II. Girls

This paper explores the phenomenological and psychodynamic differences between girls who score at the high and low extremes of the Psychosocial Maturity Inventory. Ability to tolerate anxiety and the developmental use of interpersonal relationships are discussed as central to identity formation among these girls.Preparation of this paper was supported by funds from the National Institute of Education Contract No. NE-C-00-3-0013.Received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan. Main research interests are psychology of adolescence and psychology of women.Received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Radcliffe College. Main interest is personality development from childhood through adolescence.Main interest: Evaluation methodology.     

Phenomenological aspects of psychosocial maturity in adolescence. Part I. Boys

This paper explores the phenomenological and psychodynamic differences between adolescent boys who score at the high and low extremes of the Psychosocial Maturity Inventory. The development of psychosocial maturity is viewed against the background of adolescent ego development. The freedom from impulse, the gains in self-esteem, the resolution of sexual identity, and the growth of autonomy that are the outcomes of the adolescent process all contribute to a higher degree of individual and social adequacy. The growth of heterosexuality, however, is shown to have a complex and nonlinear relationship to psychosocial maturity.Preparation of this paper was supported by funds from the National Institute of Education, Contract No. NE-C-00-3-0013.Received Ph. D. in psychology from the University of Michigan. Main research interests: psychology of adolescence and psychology of women.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Radcliffe College. Main interest: personality development from childhood through adolescence.Main interest: Evaluation methodology.For a complete discussion, see Greenberger and Sørensen (1974).     

Public safety in private hands: A Study of Ontario's Technical Standards and Safety Authority

Abstract: This article examines the experience of Ontario's Technical Standards and Safety Authority (tssa), a not‐for‐profit corporation to which the public‐safety regulation functions of the province's Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations (now the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services) were transferred in 1997. The authors place the tssa in the larger context of the restructuring of government functions and responsibilities and the transferring of these activities to non‐governmental actors, as part of what has become known around the world as the “new public management.” The history, rationale, mandate, structure and functions of the tssa are described. In addition, an assessment of the tssa as a model for the delivery of public services against criteria related to governance, political and legal accountability and performance relative to its predecessor is provided. The article concludes that significant gaps remain in the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services' capacity to adequately oversee the tssa and in the accountability framework for the tssa relative to that applicable to a conventionally structured government agency. Improvements in public safety outcomes in Ontario over the past decade are noted, although many of these trends pre‐date the creation of the tssa and may be attributable to factors other than the mccr/tssa transition. Sommaire: Le présent article passe en revue I'expérience de la Technical Standards and Safety Authority (tssa) de I'Ontario, organisme à but non lucratif auquel furent transférées en 1997 les fonctions relatives à la réglementation de la sécurité publique du ministère de la Consommation et du Commerce de la province (devenu le ministère des Services aux consommateurs et aux entreprises). Les auteurs placent la Esa dans le contexte plus vaste de la restructuration des fonctions et responsabilités gouvernementales et du transfert de ces activités à des organismes non gouvemementaux, dans le cadre de ce qui est maintenant connu mondialement sous le nom de « nouvelle gestion publique ». 11s décrivent l'historique, la justification, le mandat, la structure et les fonctions de la tssa. Ils foumissent en outre me évaluation de la Esa en tant que modèle de prestation de services publics selon des critères de gouvemance, d'imputabilité politique et légale et de rendement par rapport à son prédécesseur. L'article conclut qu'il existe encore d'importantes lacunes en ce qui concerne la capacité du ministère des Services aux consommateurs et aux entreprises à superviser adéquatement la tssa et en ce qui concerne le cadre de responsabilité de la tssa par rapport à ce qui s'applique à un organisme gouvernemental de structure conventionnelle. L'article mentionne les améliorations concernant la sécurité publique survenues en Ontario au cours de la dernière décennie, quoique nombre de ces tendances datent d'avant la création de la tssa et pourraient tre attribuables à des facteurs autres que la transition du mcc à la tssa.